


North

by rebelsfromstars



Series: What Happens After (War Is Won) [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor, and how they start to compete who's the best, anyway this is about stories other want to tell jacen, i'm not joking when i say that i love this kid with all my heart, it's all after war and when ezra is back home of course, rex talks a lot about clone wars, space family having time of their lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-02 18:24:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16792303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelsfromstars/pseuds/rebelsfromstars
Summary: Who is the best storyteller? Who is the coolest grandpa? With whom Jacen likes to play the most?And in the end, where Jacen comes to search for peace? (Only the last question is answered.)





	North

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea long time ago, in summer, and only now I had an inspiration to write it. Inspired by [this](https://lothalsector.tumblr.com/post/171622111608/cool-grandpa-rex-though-he-never-expected-to-be) Tumblr post. 
> 
> So many thanks to [PilotInTheStars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilotInTheStars) for the beta support! You're amazing <3 
> 
> It's very Jacen centered as you can see from the tags. Because I'm never joking when it comes to how much I love him. The most developed story here has Rex. After that they all start to compete with each other, more or less, because everybody wants to be Jacen's favorite. But no one can really beat Hera.

In the span of one year there were more people on the _Ghost -_ especially at the same time _-_ than throughout whole Jacen’s life. It was very exciting to have all of them there. And his mom was spending even more time with him than usual, which was extra cool.

Right now, though, he was left to play with grandpa Rex and grandpa Cham. The latter visited very rarely, and to Jacen it always felt like a special experience. He always brought food that he, Jacen, and his mom really enjoyed - spicy and hot. He seemed harsh to anyone else, but he had a warm, loving presence when it came to Jacen. And he had a lot of stories to tell. Granted, Jacen was raised on stories - about his father, about his family from the times before he was born, a few made-up bedtime stories - he learned to really appreciate them. He also always liked to listen to the same story, but from different people. That always brought diversity to the story that could sometimes seem like something totally new, but it was actually only re-told by other person.

From grandpa Cham, Jacen loved to hear about his mom, especially about the young, joyful one, when she was Jacen’s age. It was really fascinating for Jacen to hear things that were so unbelievable sometimes.

The time for stories came once more, when Jacen was brought by his grandpas to the galley (they said he was tired, but he really wasn’t!) to have something to drink and eat.

Jacen was sitting beside Cham, with Rex across the table. Cham and Rex were chatting, but

Jacen didn’t really know about what, until grandpa Rex called to him directly.

“You’ve ever heard of Silans, Jacen?” he asked. Jacen looked at him, rather curiously, as he was standing up on the bench to reach for the piece of meiloorun on the table. He shook his head.

“I didn’t,” he admitted.

“Ha, that’s because they don’t exist!” said Cham. Jacen was a little surprised to see him so agitated, though he could recognize the fire in his grandpa’s eyes. It matched the fire that his mother had.

“They do exist, because I saw them!”

“You literally just admitted that you and the rest of the 501st were high, so excuse me, while I won’t be believing you.”

“We were not _high_. We were intoxicated by the water that we did not know was toxic. But its effects completely wore down, before we all saw the Silans!”

“The Silans? You said it was one Silan,” further argued Cham.

“The one _grown-up_ Silan. The rest were his babies,” explained Rex.

“That’s not what you said before.”

“ _That’s not what I_ … Ugh, nevermind. Jacen, you wanna hear a story about Silans?” asked him Rex, clearly fed up with Cham.

“Yeah!” exclaimed Jacen happily, though his mouth was full of fruit. Cham reprimanded him for talking like that. Jacen nodded his head. They always said that, the grown-ups.

Rex was clearly satisfied with Jacen’s answer, as he began the storytelling.

“It was during the Clone Wars. After one of the toughest battles, we were send back to Coruscant.” Jacen could feel grandpa's Cham irritation, but it was more in a teasing way than a serious one. “However before we could reach the destination planet our ship malfunctioned.”

“How?” asked Jacen, genuinely curious about it. Maybe it was an interest instilled in him by his mom and Sabine, but it didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it himself. Besides his mom and Sabine were so cool! Anything they were doing he would do as well! (Which led to too many incidents with him trying to dye his hair because Sabine looked so cool with the vibrant colors on her head. It took his mom telling him how much she loved his natural color that Jacen jumped on to other ways to take on Sabine's interests. Honestly, he was also very keen on mimicking Zeb or Ezra. Those, on the other hand, led to him helping Zeb in the kitchen, listening to the space rock music, training fighting, connecting to animals and many many others).

“Oh, I don’t think I remember; it was such a long time ago--”

“Since you made up a Silan during your hallucination,” cut in Cham. Rex puffed with

irritation.

“I did not. It was something with an engine I guess. I never was a mechanic, but General Skywalker wanted us to land on the nearest planet to check it. General Kenobi was also convinced that it was too dangerous to fly on with a malfunction like that, so we landed.

None of us have ever been on this planet before. It was uninhabited by sentients, and maybe that was why. The first thing we saw as we landed were tall trees plants with enormous leaves. It reminded us of Felucia, but it was different. It wasn’t tropical, and it wasn’t that much colorful. Only green and red. Even the sky was kinda reddish, like as if the sun was always setting. General Skywalker kept on explaining to us why, something to do with sun outbursts.”

“Aren’t they dangerous as well?” asked Jacen, reaching for another piece of fruit.

“They are. The sun of the planet however was far enough for it to not affect the planet much - besides how hot it was there - but the coloring of the sky. It was rather a beautiful view. But, like I mentioned it was hot. So, soon we started to look for somewhere to hide from that. Generals told us to be cautious of the ship even being able to blow up. So the whole two squadrons went looking for something to cool off, if only for a little bit.

On our way, covered in sweat, barely sustaining any kind of a double time, we stumbled upon the brook. Its water looked crystal clear and it was so cold that, not thinking much, we dived right in.

If not for a few of our brothers that decided to stay on the watch we all would probably have ended up dead. The water was toxic to humans and caused severe hallucinations. I remember Fives going on and on about the seeing the strings of life or something like that,” Rex chuckled. For a moment he was lost in his memory, and not even Cham dared to interrupt him with a teasing mocking. “One way or another we did have hallucinations, but by the time we reached the caves it was all gone. I can assure you of that.”

“Caves. That’s where the Silan was?” asked Jacen. Rex smiled at him.

“Exactly. But we didn’t know it at the time. So we’re walking into the caves, oblivious to the danger--”

“Obviously,” was Cham’s interjection. Rex glared at him.

“It was hard to believe that this creature exists at all like your grandpa likes to remind us,” he said teasingly.

“Because it’s true,” argued Cham. He really couldn’t drop the case. Jacen already knew that about him, if only from the arguments that he and his mom sometimes had.

“ _And so_ we couldn’t believe it either. We started to settle in for the night, it was already pretty late. But then it started.” He paused dramatically. Jacen was already engaged in the story.

“What happened?” he asked, excited. Rex smiled, and Jacen could see in the corner of his eyes how Cham was shaking his head, though smiling as well.

“It was very quiet there. We were almost on the verge of sleep. Some of us were keeping watch. But everything was settling and it was peaceful. Except it’s never like that during war.

“At first we heard something like meowing. Someone started joking that it was one of us. Eventually we quieted down again. But the meowing only increased. It went on and on until it became a growl. At this point most of us were alarmed and armed just in case. The moment of anticipation before the creature emerged from behind the corner of the cave was one that I’ll remember forever. First there were only tentacles on the wall, before the whole creature appeared. It was half the size of _Ghost_ , with enormous teeth, thousands of tentacles, and it was angry. We came upon its territory. Some of our brothers immediately pointed their guns at it, but me and Cody stopped them. We decided to back down quietly and slowly. That was when we spotted a few of the little ones behind it. At first it was hard to recognize, because all the tentacles looked the same to us. But then they showed their little teeth, and it was clear we were not only invading their territory, but we were also a possible dinner. We backed down without a real fight, there was no sense in it. And the creatures couldn’t come out of the caves, so as soon as we were out of their range we were okay.

“We came back to the Generals to report to them that we should get off from the planet as soon as possible. There was a reason it was uninhabited after all. When we told them about the creatures, General Skywalker had hard time believing us, but General Kenobi did. He said, he and his master stumbled upon them once before. Fortunately the ship was fixed and we could leave. Nobody knew what else could hide in the darkness of the night.” ended Rex, grimly, and mysteriously. Jacen was delighted. Cham was shaking his head.

“It’s a nice, scary, bedtime story. But it’s not a real one,” he argued. Rex only sighed.

“The kid liked it, so the win is on me,” he said. Jacen could tell the atmosphere in the room shifting. Grandpa Cham was about to get competitive, he could tell.

“The win? Ha! Nothing can beat the story of the Hammer of Ryloth!” Rex didn’t hide with rolling his eyes.

“Not that again,” he mumbled, but Cham ignored him.

“It’s an important story Jacen, teaching you about your legacy. Your father liked it very much.”

“He wanted you to like him, Cham!” argued Rex. Cham rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, well he had a good reason, because he was truly fascinated with my story. Let’s not forget that he was a Jedi, and the Hammer of Ryloth could not happen without the help of Jedi.”

“You’re Hera’s father, of course he would be fascinated!” Cham ignored Rex again. It was not that important, now.

“It was the famous Battle of Lessu that brings fame and glory to our family name Jacen.” said Cham, proudly. Jacen thought his grandpa looked a little funny.

“I thought it was my mom being the best pilot in the galaxy,” he said, rather cleverly. Rex laughed. Cham looked taken aback for a moment, but he quickly recovered.

“That too. But long before your mother could even get behind the controls of the ship, it was me alongside Jedi who led the winning march against the Separatists, freeing our people from the enslavement happening on our own planet.” Jacen seemed to be listening, even though he had already heard the story a few times, so it only got Cham more encouraged.

“We were outnumbered and had to retreat to caves. To save our people from further extermination, it was the only reasonable thing to do. Then the Jedi came. Their help was invaluable. Thanks to them we were able to take back our city. And it wasn’t an easy task. There were thousands of them, if not millions …” Rex puffed with irritation, his arms crossed across his chest.

“I was at the Command Centre during this battle, and I know for certain that it wasn’t millions. It wasn’t even thousands!” said Rex. Jacen chuckled, but Cham seemed to be a little angry now.

“What might or not might not be in the strategy is different from what’s actually happening on the battlefield!”

“Yeah, well, I’m just gonna presume that those millions are the same as Silans are to you - non existent."

Jacen was saved from hearing his granddad’s angry response by Zeb coming into the galley. He was always happy to see him, but now more than ever.

“Uncle Zeb!” he exclaimed happily, and Zeb grinned at him widely. He came by to him and ruffled his hair.

“Hey, kid, what’s up?”

“Grandpas are fighting,” he said, shrugging his arms.

“We’re not!” protested Cham and Rex almost simultaneously. Zeb crossed his arms across

chest.

“What about?” he asked, a teasing smile already in the corner of his lips.

“Stories,” said Jacen, casually, as he dipped his finger into the peanut butter. No one even noticed _when exactly_ he was able to grab it. Zeb, moved it out of his way, without a word. Jacen smiled innocently at him, and Zeb couldn’t not reciprocate. But the jar was safely hidden away, now.

There was angry chatter in the background again.

“Hey, hey, guys, easy. Everybody knows that when it comes to stories, I tell the best ones.” Cham and Rex only shook their heads. “What?” asked Zeb, outraged, with their disbelief. “I do! Isn’t that right, Jacen?”

Jacen titled his head, in consideration, waving his legs around.

“Uncle Kallus has the best ones!” he offered, to the dread of the present men.

“Of course he doesn’t! Let me tell you about the time we, the Royal Guard, had to hold back the attack on the Main Palace!” he said, as he brought the chair from under the wall and sat on it, right at the top of the table. Jacen looked up at him with interest, but that was when Alexandr came in, probably hearing his name.

“Someone called me?” he asked.

“We’re telling stories, and yours are the best,” said Jacen. Kallus smiled sheepishly.

“Wait until you hear _my_ story, Jacen,” highlighted Zeb.

He was not even one quarter into his story, when Rex had to cut in.

“Silans were far way more dangerous than whatever _this_ that’s you’re talking about is!”

“Which both are not true,” murmured Cham.

“Bullcrap, of course it’s true! You think I would make up something like that? It literally shook the Palace’s walls!” protested Zeb. It got an automatic response from the rest, who got engaged in the heated discussion, about what was, and what was not, in fact real.

During this, Kallus took his place right beside Jacen.

“You wanna hear again about my time on Mon Cala?” he asked. Jacen didn’t even have a chance to respond, as Sabine entered the room in that exact moment.

“What’s up ?” she asked, but she didn’t get an answer either. She sat right beside Rex, and soon she was engaged in the discussion as well.

“No, boys, no story can beat the one where me and Ketsu accidentally robbed an Andornian bank!” It quickly became loud, when suddenly the doors to the galley swished wide open to reveal Ezra. He liked a dramatic entrance after all.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“We’re telling stories,” said Jacen.

“No! We’re making a competition out of it! The best story wins!” announced Sabine. Jacen could see Ezra’s eyes igniting at this childish competition that he and Sabine sometimes still showed.

“You can already call me a winner then. Get ready for the best story ever involving loth-cats, angry stormtroopers, wild action, and a lot of dashing charm in my person!” said Ezra, already challenging half the room. Or maybe even everyone in it, besides Jacen.

Sabine snorted with irritation.

“What even makes you think you can beat my awesome story?” she teased.

“Everybody loves animal stories !” said Ezra, earnestly.

“That's what I was saying!” agreed Rex, with that much, at least.

“The difference between a loth-cat and a Silan though is that one exists and we have proof for that and the other doesn't.” commented Cham, with his usual bitterness.

And suddenly all the voices mixed and Jacen couldn’t focus on any of them, even though he really wanted to. But everybody wanted to prove that their story was the best, and Jacen didn’t really care about all of that. He liked all the stories, what did they have to compete about it?

Why it had to be so loud? It was starting to become too much.

Nobody noticed when Jacen slipped away and exited the galley. It was much better now, quiet. Jacen really loved his family, he loved all of them. But it was just too much, too loud.

He needed peace, he needed something constant, someone he could always count on.

He needed his mom.

He smiled to himself. He knew exactly where to find her.

The grasses of Lothal were calm and green as always. The view filled Jacen with the peace that he needed so much, right now.

And among them was his mom, not hard to spot in her pilot gear. She was kneeling, and looked motionless, like if she was meditating.

Quietly, Jacen run right up to her, and kneeled beside her. He closed his eyes the same way she had hers already closed. Maybe it really was as relaxing as everybody was saying?

But Jacen found himself, lurking at her from the corner of his eye. Noticing that she was doing the same, he couldn’t stop a big grin from appearing on his face. He looked once more at her. She was smiling as well, wide and affectionate.

Not being able to stay still, Jacen opened up his eyes all the way, and met with Hera’s amused, bright gaze.

“What’s happening, love?” she asked, still smiling.

“I just wanted a little peace,” he said, honestly. Hera smirked.

“Are they arguing what they prefer to play next, again?” she asked, an obvious humor in her voice. Jacen giggled.

“No, they’re fighting about who has better stories,” he answered. Hera laughed.

“Oh, of course they would,” she said. She was looking at Jacen, and it didn’t take him long to crawl on her lap. She closed her arms around him in the loving hug.

“I just wanted a little quiet and peace, mom, you know?” Hera’s heart melted. He was so sweet when he had said that. Her poor boy, he was just tired. She tightened her embrace, and leaned down to kiss his forehead.

“It’s alright, little love, you’re here with me,” she assured him. She could feel how he was relaxing, and how he was clinging to her. Sometimes, she still surprised herself with how much she was letting herself to feel, just like in that moment, when she could literally feel all the love she had for her son. He was still so tiny. She guessed that she will always feel the need to protect him, but right in that moment, this particular feeling intensified. Of course she didn't need to protect him from their own family. She just wanted to make him feel better, no matter the reason why he was upset, even if it was just their family being a little too loud.

“Mom?” he asked after a while of them only existing in this quiet moment of contemplation of Lothal’s mountains and grasses, wrapped in the warmth of each other.

“Yes, baby?”

“Will you tell me a story?” Hera smiled.

“What kind of a story?” she asked.

“Something funny, maybe?” proposed Jacen.

Hera nodded.

“Okay, let me think for a moment,” she said. They fell into the comfortable silence again, while Hera tried to remember something good for a story. She started to mindlessly run her hand through Jacen’s hair.

“You know what makes a funny story? There was this one mission done all by Chop and your dad. I know it only from what they had told me, but it was hilarious,” she started. Jacen looked up at her, with a small smile on his face and curious eyes.

“I think you never told me this one,” he said. Hera nodded.

“About time then. It’s a good story.”

Jacen stayed in Hera’s arms through the whole story, listening carefully, asking questions when something caught his attention, snuggling into her.

It was a simple moment, but they both enjoyed it, especially that soon they had to head back to the _Ghost_. The melodic sound of Hera’s voice was soothing and calming, but not making Jacen sleepy. It was perfect.

Deep down into another, strange to him - though somehow also a little familiar - world, Jacen felt much better. All of this, the quiet and domestic, but still engaging story, his mom’s warm embrace and voice, it just felt good, felt safe.

The sun hid behind the clouds, making it a lot colder. But Jacen didn’t mind that much.

As long as he was with Hera, how could anything go wrong?

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this, and it wasn't too slow-paced. Also, I took Silans from legends, so they really would be mythical-like creatures. Thanks for reading <3


End file.
